The funding will accelerate its growth to help more entrepreneurs succeed through its accelerator programmes, startup ecosystem activations, and corporate innovation

Techstars, a global seed-stage startup accelerator, announced today it has secured US$42 million in an investment round led by SVB Financial Group, the holding company of Silicon Valley Bank.

Existing investors including US-based VC firm Foundry Group also participated.

As per a press note, this funding will accelerate Techstars’s growth to help more entrepreneurs succeed through seed-stage accelerators, global startup ecosystem activations, corporate innovation, and entrepreneur-focused events.

Techstars runs two accelerators in Singapore annually — one with Rakuten and the other with Eastern Pacific Shipping. It is now planning to expand its presence in the region. “We certainly plan to expand further in Southeast Asia in the future. This is a primary reason why we raised this capital — to speed our further global expansion and to help connect the Techstars network even more deeply into Southeast Asia. We recognise the tremendous opportunities in the region to extend our investment activity there, as well as to potentially help build strong ecosystems,” Techstars Co-founder and co-CEO David Cohen told e27.

Founded in 2006 by Cohen and David Brown (co-CEO), Brad Feld and Jared Polis, Techstars is a worldwide network that enables founders to connect with entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporations to grow their companies.

Techstars consists of both an investment management business with US$500 million in assets under management, as well as an operating business that is approaching US$100 million in annual revenue. Its investment activity now includes 49 accelerator programmes in 35 cities across 16 countries, deploying US$80 million into nearly 500 startups on an annual basis.

Also Read: Techstars is helping to grow Southeast Asia’s startup scene; Here’s how they did it

The firm claims its portfolio of 1,900 companies currently attracts an annual US$2 billion in downstream investment from the venture capital industry. It also invests in global emerging startup communities by operating approximately 1,000 annual Techstars Startup Weekend events in 600 cities across 120 countries to help surface and support future high growth companies.

Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Techstars employs more than 280 people across 20 countries.

“Being the largest and most active global seed investor requires a mindset and approach that is completely distinct from traditional venture capital,” said Cohen. “Techstars has created and is scaling an entirely new type of early-stage private equity asset.”

Through its operating activities, Techstars’ partners with nearly 100 corporations to provide corporate innovation solutions.

SVB Capital President John China, who has joined Techstars’s Board of Directors, said: “The Techstars team is well-positioned to keep developing its platform and enable and support founders, investors and startup ecosystems around the globe,” said China. “SVB has a long history working with Techstars and its portfolio companies and we’re enthusiastic about the opportunity to further our relationship and make a bigger positive impact on the innovation economy.”

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